How Far Is Heaven?
by missjayelle
Summary: "Am I dead?" I ask, afraid of the answer.  "Don't look so sad,  Aria . It happens to the best of us."  What happens when Aria wakes up and finds out from a long-lost friend that she's dead? Inspired by The Matrix, Inception, and a PLL dream I had last nig
1. Chapter 1

So... I started this story awhile ago then forgot about it, but I kind of wanted to finish it so I'm rewriting it. Enjoy! (btw... Happy Holidays)

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><p>A mild ringing encompasses my head as I slowly gain consciousness. The ringing is soft, but enough to cause irritation. My eyes blink open and suddenly warm light slaps my face. The room is mildly warm and filled with golden white light that smells something like a clean bathroom. As my mind wanders, I try to remember how I got here. Feeling apprehensive, I quickly stand up to evade any sort of danger around me. I stammer forward. I lose my balance, succumbing to a disoriented feeling. Falling backwards is a surreal feeling. The fall is light and seems to last much longer than I'm used to. Landing on a solid floor comes as a relief to me for some reason. With one look I can tell the room is endless. The floor is a translucent shade of white, but it's supporting my weight so it must be solid. How can something so boundless be so finite at the same time? When my eyes finally adjust, I feel myself overcome with fear. The initial shock, however, is transient. The fear is replaced by a strange feeling of curiosity. I squint as I slowly become aware of my surroundings. Could I be dreaming? This place is unreal.<p>

"I've been waiting for you, my darling." A voice calls sweetly. The sound echoes throughout the room. A figure appears in the distance. "Don't be scared." The voice is familiar and so is the shape of the figure approaching me. "Don't you recognize me, Aria? Has it really been that long?" It can't be...

"Alison?" My muscles stiffen and tension paralyzes my body. "I don't understand… Is this a dream?"

"A dream… An illusion… A fantasy… Reality... Actuality and Real life." The incorporeal figure suddenly materializes. It is Alison. But how? "All of the above, sweetheart." Her voice rings as it vibrates in the room. My mind is blown. This defies the laws of physics. Sound cannot echo if there is no wall for the waves to bounce off of.

"The rules of the physical world don't apply here, Aria." I stare at her blankly. She offers her hand. "Walk with me?"

"Did you just read my thoughts?" My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"I didn't have to." Taking in my surroundings, my face falls. I lower my eyes. "Am I dead?" I ask, afraid of the answer.

"Don't look so sad, sweetie. It happens to the best of us." She shrugs. No. I can't be dead. I refuse to be dead.

"I'm dreaming. This isn't possible. I want to wake up now." I protest. She just smiles. She raises her wrist slightly, looking at it and silently ordering me to take it. I do. She smiles and clasps her hand around mine. She takes me along the room without saying anything. "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere." She stops moving and turns around and flashes a smile at me. "Somewhere. Anywhere." I open my mouth to protest, but she interrupts me with a laugh. "Everywhere." She adds. As she giggles I reminisce back to when she was still alive and the five of us were together.

Time passes- or so it seems. Up to this point neither of us has said anything else. We just continue along. I figure we're not really going to any particular destination. Then again, Alison always had a purpose for taking us places when she was alive. Alison had a purpose for everything. Every muscle she moved had some reason for its flow. The atmosphere doesn't change as we walk further. The floor neither goes up, down, nor straight. It simply continues- if that's even possible. I suppose, though, nothing is going to make much sense here if I am to be dead.

"We've been walking a long time..." I say finally.

"Time doesn't exist here, Aria." Alison says, not bothering to stop. "Nothing exists here."

"Even us?" Alison laughs again. I wish she would stop that.

"We're dead, remember?"

"Right. Of course." I roll my eyes. Something about this place seemed off. I always imagined heaven different than this. It didn't expect it to be so... mysterious. I didn't expect God to be my dead best friend, either. "If I'm dead… Does that make this heaven?" She doesn't reply. "If this is heaven, does that make you God?" She chuckles softly.

"I'm whatever you want me to be." I looked away. This is crazy. "Although, I never took you for the religious type." None of this was making any sense to me. I still had no idea how or why I'd been sent here. As if on cue, Alison puts her arm on my shoulder. "Don't worry, sweetie. You're here for a reason. So am I."

"Can you cut this cryptic crap and tell me what's going on?" I yank my hand away from hers. "Where are we? What's happening to me?" A dangerous silence surrounds the moment.

"Do you hear that?" She says, avoiding my question.

"Alison…" I groan. She closes her eyes. She must be serious. I remain silent and listen.

"I don't hear anything." I whisper.

"You aren't listening hard enough." She laughs. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"They're coming for you." Her voice interrupts my focus. "But it's not time yet."

"They?"

"I'm not ready. You've only just got here." Alison complains.

"I don't understand. Alison, who is coming?" She takes my hand again.

"Come on." She pulls me along and we run through the room.

"Ali, where are we going?" We suddenly stop and the white room morphs into a darker, greyer shade.

"Did the room just get darker?" I mutter, quietly. Her manner is serious and focused. "Did you do this?"

"No." Alison replies, gently settling her body in a chair. "You did." I sit down next to her, letting out a shaky breath I don't remember holding. "It means you don't have much time."

"I thought you said time doesn't exist here." I recall.

"Not your sense of time."

"If not mine... Then whose?"

"You ask too many questions." I step away from her and my eyes wander around her bedroom.

"Why am I here, Alison."

"You tell me that." Alison crosses her legs and smirks.

"You can hear my thoughts. You talk like some kind of mystery novel. You're immaterial and material at the same time. You can hear things that I can't? … You must be some sort of spiritual figure."

"You were always so keen, Aria." Her hair falls against her shoulders as she tilts her head. "That's why I chose you."

"Chose me?" I pull away from her. "Chose me for what?" She doesn't reply. "I didn't realize we were playing a game..."

"It was always a game, Aria."


	2. Chapter 2

"You were always so keen, Aria." Her hair falls against her shoulders as she tilts her head. "That's why I chose you."

"Chose me?" I pull away from her. "I didn't realize we were playing a game."

"It was always a game, Aria."

I let her words sink in a moment. I should've known. I shouldn't have expected anything else. Life was a game to Alison- all of us mere dolls in her game.

"How did I die?" I finally ask.

"What do you remember?" I sigh.

"Nothing…" A tear rolls down my cheek. "I'm really dead?"

"You get used to it." Alison shrugs. "So tell me, Aria. What are you thinking?"

"That I don't want to be dead. I don't even know how I died! All I can think about are my family and my friends."

"What is your last memory?" I shake my head. My mind is blank. "Why don't you start at the beginning? Tell me what's happened since I left you guys. I'm dying to know." I smile a tad and then remember how much drama there has been since we found her body. My smile fades.

"They're not dead, too, are they? My friends?" Alison shakes her head.

"The others are just fine. Why wouldn't they be?" I smile at the thought of them. I miss them so much already. How are they going to handle two friend deaths? I cringe at the thought.

"How are my girls?"

"We're best friends." I reply with a grin. "We tell each other everything… Always…"

"Just like I taught you." Alison nods, slowly. "Go on." She folds her hands in her lap.

"We weren't always, though… We… We lost touch." She frowns. "After you died… we… I moved to Iceland for a year. I didn't talk to them… I didn't talk to anyone." I explain.

"Your dad?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Yes…" I sigh.

"Go figure." She shrugs.

"But when we were in Iceland… It was like nothing ever happened. My brother talked to me. My parents loved each other. Everything felt right."

"All good things must come to an end." Alison says, interrupting my thoughts. I supposed she was right. She was living proof of that. Or… not-living proof of that. "You can't live in fantasy land forever, sweetheart. That's not the way the game works."

"Why do you keep referring to this as a game? What game are we playing?"

"I don't have the freedom to explain it to you."  
>"Who makes up these rules?"<p>

"Certainly not me." She giggles. "Don't concern yourself with it. It's irrelevant. For you, at least." Frustrated, I decide to give up. If Alison deemed it unimportant, I wasn't at liberty to disagree. "Keep talking. It'll make you feel better. You were talking about Iceland…"

"It was so easy in Iceland. Not talking to the other girls made me forget everything. I missed them of course… and you… But for awhile… Forgetting everything made me feel like I could be normal again." Alison wipes away an upset glare on her face with a plastered smile.

"Why would you want to forget me?" I opened my mouth to reply, but she quickly changed her manner and spoke before I got the chance. "If you and the girls lost touch, what made you get back to them so easily when you came home?"

"You, actually." I noticed Alison's demeanor change once again. She was enjoying this. "Your death." I added, morbidly. Her expression only grew warmer. Alison puzzled me. How could she be so comfortable with her death?

"Tell me more…" Alison urges.

"Well… There was that other thing." The volume of my voice lowers as I think about 'A' and all the drama that had brought. I grit my teeth. "A…"

"What do you remember about 'A?'"

"Everything. The texts, the notes, the constant bullying." I let out a hot breath. "I bet it was 'A' who killed me. They would do something like that." Alison snorts.

"My dear, I promise you that 'A' is neither your killer nor mine." She rubs her chin, slightly. "Not directly, anyway."

"Is our killer the same person?" Suddenly it dawns on me… "I was murdered?" My eyes grow wide. She smiles. "Why can't you tell me why I died?" I ask, angrily.

"Because, my darling… What fun would that be?" Alison chuckles.

"You're sadistic. You know that?" I accuse, frustrated with her answer.

"Of course I do, Aria. It's my nature."


	3. Chapter 3

"Why can't you tell me how I died?" I ask, angrily.

"Because, my darling… What fun would that be?" Alison chuckles.

"You're sadistic. You know that?" I accuse, frustrated with her answer.

"Of course I do, Aria. It's my nature."

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><p>I groan. I stand up and walk away from her.<p>

"This isn't fair. I wasn't supposed to die. I don't even know _how_ I died. The only person that knows is you and you won't even tell me. It's just… not fair."

"Nothing's fair in this world, sweetie." Her falls. "The sooner you realize that, the better."

"What world _is_ this?"

"Chill, Aria." Alison says, smoothly. "It doesn't have to make sense. It just… is." Defeated, I throw my arms up in the air and sink back into a chair. "Now… Where were we?"

"No. I'm done. I don't want to talk anymore."

"Aria…" My body relaxes as my name rolls of her lips. "You're dead. I'm your only company. For now, anyway."

"What do you mean for now? Which part? My death or you being my company?"

"You're doing it again. Questioning everything." She rolls her eyes.

"Am I ever going to know how I died?"

"That's not up to me." She shrugs. I groan. Obviously not getting anywhere, I decide to continue playing her game.

"You were talking about A…"

"'A' …" I say simply.

"And… What about 'A'?" She prompts.

"A makes us do things… Bad things. Things that we don't want to do, because they hurt other people."

"Things like telling the truth?" I narrow my eyes at her.

"And when were you ever a fan of the ninth commandment?" I joke. She plasters on a pretentious smile.

"Only when it really mattered." That was the Alison I knew. Her smile fades and she becomes serious again. "Look, Aria, there were things that I didn't tell you guys. Things that I was supposed to tell you all in due time… But I was murdered before I even got the chance." Alison sighs. "I had a plan. I chose each of you for a specific reason. But that bitch, 'A' ruined me before I even got to explain it all to you."

"You're not making any sense, Alison. I don't…. I don't understand." Suddenly, the room morphs into a familiar place. It's her old bedroom.

"Did I do that?" Alison groans in frustration.

"I don't have a lot of time. You have to remember how you died, Aria. Nothing works until you figure it out."

"Why can't you just tell me?" I plead.

"Because… That's not the way this game works."

"What GAME?"

"The one we're living…" She thinks for a moment. "Or… not living." She looks into my eyes. "Aria, you don't understand."

"CLEARLY." I shout. "If I don't understand, then help me understand."

"I can't, Aria." She seems genuinely concerned. "The game only works if you're playing and I'm guiding."

"What if I don't feel like playing anymore?"

"It's too late now. You can't escape without playing."

"So I'm trapped? I thought I was dead… Does it get worse then this? Am I going to hell?"

"Religion is irrelevant, Aria. The only thing that matters is you and your story."

"My story…?" She nods. "I have a story...?"

"Of course, sweetie. Everyone has a story."

"If you're fighting so hard for my story, that means I'm not dead."

"But you are dead, sweetie."

"But not entirely or it wouldn't be this complicated." She frowns.

"You can't be kind of dead. There's no grey here. You're either dead or not."

"But my story... It's ongoing. If I still have a story to speak of, my death can't be the end of it." She smiles.

"Now we're getting somewhere."

"Thank, God." I throw my arms in the air.

"God has nothing to do with it... At least... Not right now. You have no idea what you're up against, though. Fate is an elusive force."

"Fate?"

"I've said too much…" She looks away.

"If I still have a fate… That means my story isn't over. I still have 'unfinished business.'" She turns around and smiles. "So once I complete my business, I can win this game."

"I hate to break it to you, but you won't be winning anything when you 'complete your business." She purses her lips. "Also, you're not completing any unfinished business. Unfortunately it's more complicated than that." Of course it is.

"If I'm not completing unfinished business, I must have some purpose then. Otherwise my story wouldn't be ongoing and you wouldn't be helping me." I narrow my eyes. "You are helping me, aren't you?"

"I'm your friend, Aria. Of course I'm helping you."

"So... my purpose... My purpose is to find out what my purpose is?"

"That's what I've been saying all along."

"This makes no sense. Does this game ever end?"

"You have to play to find out."


End file.
